The Girl From Yesterday
by fnl
Summary: Percy meets up with an old friend at a Ministry Christmas party, and she makes him think, about his family, about her, about love. PWxPC fluff.


I own nothing.

* * *

The lights were bright in the large hall; the mahogany floor gleamed despite the great number of people dancing on it, and the green garland that hung decoratively on the walls stood out against their beige colour. Christmas trees adorned every corner of the room, their candles flickering and reflecting off of the silver tinsel. From the top, small elves were belting out Christmas carols, only adding to the noise. People were chattering, laughing amongst themselves, feet were making thumping noises against the wood floor, and a band at one end of the hall was playing Christmas tunes. 

Percy Weasley hated Christmas parties. He hated how people who were normally very reserved and goal oriented would, all of a sudden, let loose and forget everything that had been going on. He hated how the noise in the room seemed to echo and double in volume. He hated how people expected him to be so full of Christmas cheer when he so obviously wasn't. He hated how his family didn't trust him or his judgement, and how they so openly defied the Ministry.

The redhead was sitting at one of the tables near the head of the hall, his face set in a noticeable, disapproving look. He had only a glass of wine in front of him; everything from supper had already been cleared. He glared at the centrepiece in distaste, a miniature tree draped with tinsel that matched those on the big trees. This party had not been very festive for the young man, nor did it provide any sort of amusement to him. The way he saw it was that the evening would've been better well spent if him and all of his colleagues had been working instead of frolicking. He glanced towards the dance floor again and snorted in disgust. Knowing them, though, they probably enjoyed this evening off of work.

Lifting his glass, he took the napkin he had folded and used as a coaster from under it. As a way of occupying himself, he unfolded the cloth and refolded it, being sure to press the seams. Before he could finish, though, a voice came from behind, startling him, and causing a groan of frustration and boredom to escape from his lips.

"What, you don't like parties?" the voice from behind the redhead repeated.

His reply was haughty. "Not particularly, no," he said as he folded the napkin in half.

"Why not?" the girl the voice belonged to snuck around him and sat in the empty seat that one of his colleagues had occupied an hour earlier.

With another groan because the girl would not leave him alone to wallow in his misery, he turned to look at her, and when he saw her, he blinked a few times. Her hair was dark and curly, her eyes were blue, and if he didn't know better, he would've said that they were laughing at him.

She laughed. "What, don't you recognise me?" the girl teased him.

Suddenly, his eyes got wide behind his horn-rimmed glasses. The young man was so surprised, that when he tried to talk, nothing came out. "I recognise you!" he squeaked when he could finally speak.

The girl smiled, brushing her curly black hair away from her face. "Who am I, then?" she asked with a smile.

"Penny!" he exclaimed.

"Right in one," Penelope said with a smile. "Good to know I wasn't forgotten!"

"I thought you left England?"

"I did," she replied. "But I came home after six months." Penelope didn't seem to be elaborating, so he raised an eyebrow. "I had every intention of staying in France," she continued after chuckling at his curiosity. "But I got homesick. I've never been away from my family for more than a few weeks, so …"

He stared at her. "What about Hogwarts? I'm sure you didn't see them every couple weeks then," he teased.

"I know," came her reply as she traced her finger along the bottom of the centrepiece. "But it was different. In France, with my whole life ahead of me, it felt almost as if I didn't come home I'd make my home in another country and only see my family once, maybe twice a year. And I didn't want that. Originally, I was transferred there as part of my job, but after spending Christmas alone in France last year, because I couldn't afford to come back to England, I realised that no job is worth losing ties with your family. I came back, and managed to get an apprenticeship at St. Mungo's." She smiled. "I'm glad, too. Success is nothing if you don't have your family there, behind you."

He nodded even though he didn't really absorb what she said after, _'No job is worth losing ties with your family.' _The words echoed in his head. "That's great," he responded dully.

"What about you?" she asked.

"What about me?" Percy resumed the folding of the napkin.

Smiling, she reached over and gently tugged the piece of cloth out of his hands. "What have you been up to? How's your family? How are _you_?"

He gave her a weak smile. "Well," he began. "I work in the Department for International Cooperation, very high up there, you know."

Penelope beamed at him. "I suppose you're well then," she said with a sparkle in her blue eyes. "Success was always very important to you."

_'Success is nothing if you don't have your family there, behind you.'_

"Yes," he said faintly. "Yes it was."

"Percy," she said, slightly alarmed. "Are you alright? You seemed to have gotten very quiet all of a sudden."

"Yes, I'm fine, Penny," he said, perking up, not wanting her to notice anything was wrong. She'd find out about his family and how he'd practically disowned himself. He could almost see the disappointment in her eyes.

"Well, what about your family?" she pressed. The bespectacled man cringed, and he was thankful that one of the Christmas elves took that moment to burst into a particularly high note, causing her eyes to dart that way.

"They're fine …" he hesitated. "Er, actually, Ron became a Prefect last year!" As hard as he tried, he couldn't hide the pride in his voice.

She grinned. "That's wonderful. Taking after his brother?"

_'No job is worth losing ties with your family.'_

"I hope not," he whispered.

Penelope leaned closer. "Sorry," she said. "I couldn't hear you."

He cleared his throat. "I asked, 'Which one?' Bill and Charlie were both Prefects as well, you know." Again, there was a trace of pride in his tone.

A moment passed, and nothing was said. There was a bit of a role reversal as the redhead traced the bottom of his wine glass, and the girl next to him began to fold the napkin. As the band struck up a new song, Penelope began to expectantly stare at the man next to her.

"What?" he asked quickly, worried that she had asked him something, and he hadn't been listening.

"Are you going to ask me to dance?" the twinkle was back in her eye, and the beginning of a smile was playing on her face.

"Er … Um, do you -" his voice came out slightly high and squeaky. He had no idea why he was so nervous; he knew Penelope, and it wasn't as if they had even 'broken up', in any sense of the word. They just grew apart. Besides, she was just asking as a friend. Clearing his throat, he began again. "Do you want to dance?" he asked, not wanting to himself. Dancing would make him one of them, one of those people he scowled at from afar.

But figuring that since he was at this stupid party anyways, and since _she_ had asked _him_, it was more of a favour to her, so it was okay for him to dance. Besides, it was only one, so he had no reason to feel as if he should be focusing on work instead.

Penelope beamed and stood up. "I'd love to," she said, reaching for his hand (which was still on the table) and pulling him up. Percy felt very out of place as she linked elbows with him and led him over to the dance floor, giggling as she looked up and saw the discomfort evident on his face. "Now do I make you feel apprehensive?" she asked with a trace of a smile. "Or can you not dance?"

He looked down at the brunette as they reached the dance floor and didn't speak until his right hand was on her waist and his left was holding her right.

"I can dance," he said. "I just hate Christmas parties. I feel like my time, and the time of everyone else here -" he broke the contact between their hands to gesture to the cheerful people surrounding the two. "Could be spent so much more constructively."

The girl looked alarmed. "Do you not want to dance?" she asked hastily. "I didn't want to make you do anything; it's just that I haven't seen you in so long …"

He smiled a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it." And although Percy would never admit it to her, or anyone else, the only reason he wanted to keep dancing was because he still liked her. And he wanted to disregard this; love was too distracting. But he couldn't, and suddenly, completely taking himself by surprise, he said, "What happened between us, Penny?"

She glanced up at him quickly, her eyes showing her surprise at his bringing "them" up. "I don't know," she sighed and leaned forward, resting her head on his chest, and bringing her arms to wrap around his neck.

He moved his other hand to her waist. "Something did, though."

"I don't know, Percy. We grew up. We grew apart."

It was his turn to sigh. He still felt a bit out of his element, but right then he was happy just to see her again. He had missed talking to her, seeing her. He missed her.

A moment passed, but apparently, she wasn't finished speaking. "You got so involved with work and we just gradually … stopped writing to each other."

A couple minutes passed when nothing was spoken between the two. Percy thought about a lot on those couple minutes. How important family was and how he had just … broken his up. All of Penelope's discussion about her family and her chances for success was stuck in his mind.

_'No job is worth losing ties with your family.'_

_'Success is nothing if you don't have your family there, behind you.'_

He stared down at the head resting against his chest. Maybe she had something there. It may be time to make amends. And maybe, just maybe, he'd go see his family on Christmas.

Penelope suddenly stopped moving, and Percy looked down at her in surprise.

"The song is over, Percy," she giggled.

For the first time that night, he listened to the music and realised that it wasn't the same beat that he and the girl in front of him had been subconsciously moving to a minute ago. "So it is," he said, trying to regain some dignity.

Penelope smiled at him and put her hand on his cheek. "I have to go now," she said. "I have to go in to the hospital early tomorrow." She had just walked a few steps towards the door when she turned around and walked back to the redhead. "Come see me sometime," the brunette invited. "Just ask for me at the front desk. Monday's aren't usually that busy, come see me on Monday! Better yet, let's meet for lunch!"

She seemed so excited that he couldn't say no. "Of course," he said, trying to block the fact that he rarely took a lunch break out of his mind.

Penelope beamed at him. "Great," she said excitedly. "When's your lunch break?"

It had been so long since he hadn't worked through lunch that he couldn't even remember the time he got off. "I may have an appointment at lunch, come to think of it," he informed her, after a bit of thought.

"Oh. Well, alright then." As she turned to walk away, he realised this may be his only opportunity to decide a time to see her again.

"Wait, Penny," he called, stepping forward to grab her hand.

"Yes?"

"I'm free for supper. Would it be okay to meet at the Leaky Cauldron at …"

"Five?" she filled in where he had trailed off.

"Yeah, five."

"That would be great," the smile was back on her face. She was just about to walk away, when for the third time that night, she turned around. "Percy?" she said.

"Yes?"

"Thanks. For tonight. And Monday." Standing on her tiptoes, she kissed his cheek.

"Bye, Penny," he said quietly as she walked away, putting his fingertips on his cheek.

He loved Christmas parties.


End file.
